How I came to Pymble
Growing up in Hong Kong, I was brought up in rather rigid Asian cultures and ways of thinking. People worked fast and there’s not really an opportunity to slow down. Whenever people asked me what I wanted to become when I grew up, I would say “accountant” because my dad is one and I didn’t know what else there is. When I first joined Pymble in 2009 as a Year 10 Boarder and learned that the school offered non-traditional classes like drama, food technology, ancient history and earth science; my jaw dropped.
Memories of my years at the College
At Pymble, I managed to continue my hobbies of swimming and playing the cello. Not only was I invited to join multiple orchestras, but I was also given the opportunity to play for the Beauty and the Beast musical in 2011. In my free time, I also ushered for quite a few concerts at the theatre on campus. The sky’s really the limit at Pymble. I graduated having led Goodlet House as House Captain.
Year 13 and beyond
After graduating, I moved across the world to attend the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). If Australia taught me how to fly, America taught me how to soar. I majored in Psychology and Egyptology, thinking that I’d one day become a clinical psychologist. But… life doesn’t always work according to plan.
In my second year of college, I travelled solo to Japan and Korea and met a bunch of English teachers from the UK living in Japan. Per their recommendation, I decided to give teaching English in Japan after graduation a shot. Definitely not on the right track of becoming a psychologist, but you only live once, right?
In 2016, I graduated from UCLA and packed my bags once again for a small rural town called Joetsu in Niigata Prefecture, Japan. There, I experienced a snowy winter for the first time; there, I got into my first car accident; there, I got a head injury and rode in an ambulance for the first time… but it was also there that I became fluent in a foreign language within two years, fully immersed into a culture that reminded me of my childhood, and introduced my mixed cultural backgrounds to rural Japanese students who might otherwise not have met any Asian Australians. Ever since Pymble, I’ve fallen in love with cultural exchange and that’s something I’ll always continue to do no matter where I go.
After three years in Japan, I knew that I wanted to go back to a Western country. Pymble taught me that women are just as smart, powerful and influential as men, but unfortunately, gender roles weren’t viewed the same way in Japan.
One thing that I cannot be more grateful for my time in Japan is that it kickstarted my career in writing. What started as freelance blog writing gigs in 2017 helped me land a job in marketing copywriting in New York City in 2019. At that NYC start-up, I learned that my passion really lies in user experience (UX) writing, designing content for mobile and desktop apps. In early 2021, I pivoted my career into UX writing and specialise in building apps in the FinTech space.
What’s next for me?
For once, I think my career path has found a direction. I didn’t know where I was going when I moved to Australia, Los Angeles and Japan. But looking back, I was exactly where I needed to be.
